Being out there on your own is hard. We know that independently-owned...well, anything really has to work to keep up with the big boys. Well, look at this fine company I work for. In a business where everything is big business, with some outlets being just a sub-site of a massive network, I'm kind of proud of our little web network of just a handful of sites. We hold our own with the top guns and still manage to stay independent. Yeah, we could join up with one of the many massive web networks and make our lives easy, but we don't. And that's why I'm proud to work here.

I'd imagine that indie game studios feel the same. It's good to be out on your own. But it has to hurt to hear that publisher-owned studios in the UK generate five times more income than they do. A survey by the TIGA of 78 UK companies says that indies averaged £3,130,600 while the big guns averaged £15,500,000.

To be fair, the big guys have more workers: average 245 vs an indie's average of 51 people. And development costs are higher for the publisher-owned, averaging £3 compared to £897,700.

You have to remember that the independent studios that start to make the big bucks quickly turn into publisher-owned ones. I used to think that this is what every indie studio wanted, but when I think about my own situation here at this web network, I'm not so sure anymore. Yes, being out there on your own is hard, but it's also nice. Good luck, little guys!

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